I stared at the shut door for a minute more, my hands curling into fists at my sides. There was no point in lingering, no point in staying here, not while I was so upset, so lost.
Lost. I was lost without Kelsey, and I hated it.
I headed down the hall, returning to the elevator landing and practically punching the down button to call the elevator back. Within a few moments it returned, and I resisted my urge to punch any walls as I got on—I probably would have, if the elevator didn’t already have three other SCC students on it.
The other students refused to meet my eyes when I got on, and I wondered if that was because I looked like I could kill, or if they’d seen the video of me and Kelsey. It had spread like wildfire, which must’ve taken some planning on Dean’s part, because not everyone on a college campus knew each other. It wasn’t like high school.
The elevator was silent on its way down, and I was the first one out, the first to leave the building. The sky above was almost too bright, too happy and sunny, considering how awful everything was. The wind was gentle and cool, but the weather was starting to change. I didn’t wear a jacket, but that was because I wanted to suffer.
As if making myself suffer would make me a better person. A better man.
There were no good men anymore, and if there were, they weren’t on this campus.
I went back to the house, which sat on the other edge of campus, away from the buildings where the classes were held. The Greek houses were near each other, their Greek letters plastered on the fronts of the houses, along with signs stuck in the dirt before them. The area seemed quiet now, but it’s where most of SCC’s parties were held, as the regular dorms were not allowed to house such festivities.
Technically, the Greek houses weren’t either, but did that ever stop anyone? No, no it didn’t.
When I pushed into the house, I immediately went towards the stairs, wanting to go up to my room and not speak to anyone, but the moment my foot hit the first step, someone called out to me. Someone said something they shouldn’t.
Dean was in the living room with a few other guys. His black hair was styled in a fauxhawk, his brown eyes as soulless as he was. “Levi,” he called out to me the moment I walked in the house, “where’d you go? Stop by your girlfriend’s place?” He laughed, and the other guys near him chuckled as well. “Does she still let you between her legs? I’m kind of surprised, after everything you did—”
My feet did not take me up the stairs; they froze right where they were at, and I was measured in pulling away from the stairwell, even more measured in walking into the living room.
Dean got to his feet, cocking his head as he studied me. “Though maybe I shouldn’t be surprised. Kelsey seems like the kind of girl who can never get enough—”
Out of all of the things Dean could’ve said in that moment, that was precisely the worst possible thing.
My blood instantly turned into a boil, my heart pounding in my chest. I didn’t blink. No hesitation whatsoever in my body as I walked right into the living room, met Dean’s cocky figure, and slammed a fist right into his jaw. The punch was so hard and so fast, Dean couldn’t prepare himself for the impact. He stumbled back, grimacing, and as the other guys in the room got to their feet, I decided to hit him again.
Why not? He egged on the beast; it was only fair that he was on the receiving end of its wrath, wasn’t it?
The second blow connected with his nose, and it was as my fist collided with his face that I heard a crack of cartilage. I was not able to get a third blow in, because the other guys had gotten in between us, pulling us apart. Two of them held me back, and a few others held Dean back, stopping him from retaliating.
“What the fuck, man?” Dean spat out, trying to shrug off the guys around him. His nose was already bleeding…and it looked a bit crooked.
“Don’t fucking talk about her like that again,” I warned, “or this’ll be nothing compared to what I’ll do to you.” I threw the two guys holding me back glares, and I jerked out of their hands, pushing past them to hike up the stairs, taking two at a time.
“You’re dead, Levi!” Dean called out to me, though he sounded pained. “You’re fucking dead!”
Go ahead, I wanted to tell him, try it. What else could Dean have in store for me? It wasn’t nearly as bad as what I wanted to do to him. I hoped his nose swelled. I hoped he looked like a fucking ogre for weeks and that it never healed right. Saying that about Kelsey…he got what he deserved, and I didn’t feel even a pinch bad about it.
Dean was an idiot. Why? A lot of reasons, most of them plainly obvious.
But something Dean neglected to realize was that a man was never more dangerous than when he didn’t have anything to lose. Me? I’d already lost Kelsey, though I wanted to get her back. Getting her back seemed to grow more impossible as the hours wore on.
When I reached my room, I slammed the door shut, plopping myself down on my bed, sitting on its edge, my back hunched over. My hands were still fists, my right one a bit sore from the
